Ron Gilbert, one of the masterminds of Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island, brought us The Cave, and as it was recently free on Games With Gold this is the perfect time to revisit it. It's filled with tricks and traps, platforming and puzzles, and characters and craziness. Add those up, and you've got a game that will stump players in a lot of places. That's where we come in. We'll help you get through every chamber The Cave throws at you, and we'll even grab all the Cave Paintings - the game's main collectible - along the way.

Before We Descend...

When you begin The Cave, you'll have your choice of three characters out of a total of seven. Choosing different combinations of the Knight, Hillbilly, Time Traveler, Adventurer, Scientist, Twins, and Monk changes the layout of the game. As you descend, you'll encounter unique levels for your party, though there are caverns that remain constant for every playthrough. There is a pattern to the game, and it looks like this:

The levels shown in orange are unique levels for the seven playable characters. If you don't have that character in your party, you'll skip those levels. Make sense?

With an understanding of the game's layout, we can take you through it all. We'll lead you through the constant caverns first, and then we'll check out the unique character caverns.

One last note: some characters can bypass certain obstacles. For example, the Twin's ghost ability can change how you solve a switch puzzle, and the Time Traveler's "pass through" ability allows her to skip numerous gates. For this guide, we will ignore these shortcuts. Chances are, your party will have to take the long route anyway. Sound good?